John 10:11-12

10:11 “I am the good ¹  shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life ²  for the sheep. 10:12 The hired hand, ³  who is not a shepherd and does not own sheep, sees the wolf coming and abandons ⁴  the sheep and runs away. ⁵  So the wolf attacks ⁶  the sheep and scatters them.

John 10:14

10:14 “I am the good shepherd. I ⁷  know my own ⁸  and my own know me –

Psalms 23:1

Psalm 23 ⁹ 

A psalm of David.

23:1 The Lord is my shepherd, ¹⁰ 

I lack nothing. ¹¹ 

Psalms 80:1

Psalm 80 ¹² 

For the music director; according to the shushan-eduth style; ¹³  a psalm of Asaph.

80:1 O shepherd of Israel, pay attention,

you who lead Joseph like a flock of sheep!

You who sit enthroned above the winged angels, ¹⁴  reveal your splendor! ¹⁵ 

Ecclesiastes 12:11

12:11 The words of the sages are like prods, ¹⁶ 

and the collected sayings are like firmly fixed nails;

they are given by one shepherd.

Isaiah 40:11

40:11 Like a shepherd he tends his flock;

he gathers up the lambs with his arm;

he carries them close to his heart; ¹⁷ 

he leads the ewes along.

Isaiah 63:11

63:11 His people remembered the ancient times. ¹⁸ 

Where is the one who brought them up out of the sea,

along with the shepherd of ¹⁹  his flock?

Where is the one who placed his holy Spirit among them, ²⁰ 

Ezekiel 34:23

34:23 I will set one shepherd over them, and he will feed them – namely, my servant David. ²¹  He will feed them and will be their shepherd.

Micah 5:5

5:5 He will give us peace. ²² 

Should the Assyrians try to invade our land

and attempt to set foot in our fortresses, ²³ 

we will send ²⁴  against them seven ²⁵  shepherd-rulers, ²⁶ 

make that eight commanders. ²⁷ 

Zechariah 11:3

11:3 Listen to the howling of shepherds,

because their magnificence has been destroyed.

Listen to the roaring of young lions,

because the thickets of the Jordan have been devastated.

Zechariah 11:5

11:5 Those who buy them ²⁸  slaughter them and are not held guilty; those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich.’ Their own shepherds have no compassion for them.

Zechariah 11:8

11:8 Next I eradicated the three shepherds in one month, ²⁹  for I ran out of patience with them and, indeed, they detested me as well.

Zechariah 13:7

13:7 “Awake, sword, against my shepherd,

against the man who is my associate,”

says the Lord who rules over all.

Strike the shepherd that the flock may be scattered; ³⁰ 

I will turn my hand against the insignificant ones.

Hebrews 13:20

Benediction and Conclusion

13:20 Now may the God of peace who by the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Jesus Christ,

Hebrews 13:1

Final Exhortations

13:1 Brotherly love must continue.

Hebrews 2:1

Warning Against Drifting Away

2:1 Therefore we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.

Hebrews 5:4

5:4 And no one assumes this honor ³¹  on his own initiative, ³²  but only when called to it by God, ³³  as in fact Aaron was.

[10:11]  ¹ tn Or “model” (see R. E. Brown, John [AB], 1:386, who argues that “model” is a more exact translation of καλός [kalos] here).

[10:11]  ² tn Or “The good shepherd dies willingly.”

[10:12]  ³ sn Jesus contrasts the behavior of the shepherd with that of the hired hand. This is a worker who is simply paid to do a job; he has no other interest in the sheep and is certainly not about to risk his life for them. When they are threatened, he simply runs away.

[10:12]  ⁴ tn Grk “leaves.”

[10:12]  ⁵ tn Or “flees.”

[10:12]  ⁶ tn Or “seizes.” The more traditional rendering, “snatches,” has the idea of seizing something by force and carrying it off, which is certainly possible here. However, in the sequence in John 10:12, this action precedes the scattering of the flock of sheep, so “attacks” is preferable.

[10:14]  ⁷ tn Grk “And I.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[10:14]  ⁸ tn The direct object is frequently omitted in Greek and must be supplied from the context. Here it could be “sheep,” but Jesus was ultimately talking about “people.”

[23:1]  ⁹ sn Psalm 23. In vv. 1-4 the psalmist pictures the Lord as a shepherd who provides for his needs and protects him from danger. The psalmist declares, “The Lord is my shepherd,” and then extends and develops that metaphor, speaking as if he were a sheep. In vv. 5-6 the metaphor changes as the psalmist depicts a great royal banquet hosted by the Lord. The psalmist is a guest of honor and recipient of divine favor, who enjoys unlimited access to the divine palace and the divine presence.

[23:1]  ¹⁰ sn The LORD is my shepherd. The opening metaphor suggests the psalmist is assuming the role of a sheep. In vv. 1b-4 the psalmist extends the metaphor and explains exactly how the LORD is like a shepherd to him. At the surface level the language can be understood in terms of a shepherd’s relationship to his sheep. The translation of vv. 1-4 reflects this level. But, of course, each statement also points to an underlying reality.

[23:1]  ¹¹ tn The imperfect verbal form is best understood as generalizing; the psalmist highlights his typical or ongoing experience as a result of having the LORD as his shepherd (habitual present use). The next verse explains more specifically what he means by this statement.

[80:1]  ¹² sn Psalm 80. The psalmist laments Israel’s demise and asks the Lord to show favor toward his people, as he did in earlier times.

[80:1]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew expression shushan-eduth means “lily of the testimony.” It may refer to a particular music style or to a tune title. See the superscription to Ps 60.

[80:1]  ¹⁴ sn Winged angels (Heb “cherubs”). Cherubs, as depicted in the OT, possess both human and animal (lion, ox, and eagle) characteristics (see Ezek 1:10; 10:14, 21; 41:18). They are pictured as winged creatures (Exod 25:20; 37:9; 1 Kgs 6:24-27; Ezek 10:8, 19) and serve as the very throne of God when the ark of the covenant is in view (Ps 99:1; see Num 7:89; 1 Sam 4:4; 2 Sam 6:2; 2 Kgs 19:15). The picture of the Lord seated on the cherubs suggests they might be used by him as a vehicle, a function they carry out in Ezek 1:22-28 (the “living creatures” mentioned here are identified as cherubs in Ezek 10:20). In Ps 18:10 the image of a cherub serves to personify the wind.

[80:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “shine forth.”

[12:11]  ¹⁶ tn Or “goads”; NCV “sharp sticks used to guide animals.” For further information see M. A. Fishbane, Biblical Interpretation, 29–32.

[40:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “in his bosom” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV), an expression which reflects closeness and protective care.

[63:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and he remembered the days of antiquity, Moses, his people.” The syntax of the statement is unclear. The translation assumes that “his people” is the subject of the verb “remembered.” If original, “Moses” is in apposition to “the days of antiquity,” more precisely identifying the time period referred to. However, the syntactical awkwardness suggests that “Moses” may have been an early marginal note (perhaps identifying “the shepherd of his flock” two lines later) that has worked its way into the text.

[63:11]  ¹⁹ tn The Hebrew text has a plural form, which if retained and taken as a numerical plural, would probably refer to Moses, Aaron, and the Israelite tribal leaders at the time of the Exodus. Most prefer to emend the form to the singular (רָעָה, ra’ah) and understand this as a reference just to Moses.

[63:11]  ²⁰ sn See the note at v. 10.

[34:23]  ²¹ sn The messianic king is here called “David” (see Jer 30:9 and Hos 3:5, as well as Isa 11:1 and Mic 5:2) because he will fulfill the Davidic royal ideal depicted in the prophets and royal psalms (see Ps 2, 89).

[5:5]  ²² tn Heb “and this one will be peace”; ASV “and this man shall be our peace” (cf. Eph 2:14).

[5:5]  ²³ tc Some prefer to read “in our land,” emending the text to בְּאַדְמָתֵנוּ (bÿ’admatenu).

[5:5]  ²⁴ tn Heb “raise up.”

[5:5]  ²⁵ sn The numbers seven and eight here symbolize completeness and emphasize that Israel will have more than enough military leadership and strength to withstand the Assyrian advance.

[5:5]  ²⁶ tn Heb “shepherds.”

[5:5]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and eight leaders of men.”

[11:5]  ²⁸ sn The expression those who buy them appears to be a reference to the foreign nations to whom Israel’s own kings “sold” their subjects. Far from being good shepherds, then, they were evil and profiteering. The whole section (vv. 4-14) refers to the past when the Lord, the Good Shepherd, had in vain tried to lead his people to salvation and life.

[11:8]  ²⁹ sn Zechariah is only dramatizing what God had done historically (see the note on the word “cedars” in 11:1). The “one month” probably means just any short period of time in which three kings ruled in succession. Likely candidates are Elah, Zimri, Tibni (1 Kgs 16:8-20); Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem (2 Kgs 15:8-16); or Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, Zedekiah (2 Kgs 24:1–25:7).

[13:7]  ³⁰ sn Despite the NT use of this text to speak of the scattering of the disciples following Jesus’ crucifixion (Matt 26:31; Mark 14:27), the immediate context of Zechariah suggests that unfaithful shepherds (kings) will be punished by the Lord precisely so their flocks (disobedient Israel) can be scattered (cf. Zech 11:6, 8, 9, 16). It is likely that Jesus drew on this passage merely to make the point that whenever shepherds are incapacitated, sheep will scatter. Thus he was not identifying himself with the shepherd in this text (the shepherd in the Zechariah text is a character who is portrayed negatively).

[5:4]  ³¹ sn Honor refers here to the honor of the high priesthood.

[5:4]  ³² tn Grk “by himself, on his own.”

[5:4]  ³³ tn Grk “being called by God.”